Duo Normande 2006 (see Picture Gallery for photos)

The weekend of 2nd and 3rd September saw a contingent of 17 descend on the village of Marigny for the 25th anniversary of the duo normande. Paired Ludlow riders of Neal Dellar/Dover Disney, Chris Williams/Pete Ding, Steve Bent/Howard Machell and John Hall/Geoff Hudson, with Climb on Bike’s Phil Mason/Rob Lyne where looking forward to competing in the 54.3 kilometre 2 Up ‘puissance’ around a challenging course with some fast flat sections, but which also include climbing of over 1760 feet.

The teams were supported by travelling supporters Mick and Jackie Davey, Ian and Mary Lambert and Derek, a long time cyclist and friend of Neal Deller – now living in Milton Keynes. In addition Mike Webb, who has assisted with the travelling arrangements for previous Ludlow Club excursions, drove his minibus from Ludlow with 4 of the riders, accompanied by his partner Audrey.

Despite some last minute reorganisation of travel arrangements for some of the group – in stark contrast to the more considered early planning of the more organised elements within the club, all riders and supporters completed the journey with no mishap. The relatively late booking of the ferry tickets meant that cabins were not available for the Friday overnight crossing from Portsmouth. Attempts to bribe a Rodney Trotter look alike at the checking in point were notable for their failure and resulted in little sleep, sore and stiff joints on disembarking at 7.30am in Le Havre.

Arriving at the hotel spirits were lifted to find that the expected ‘one star’ rating of the hotel, and fears of the level of quality that that might entail, was in fact an acceptable 2 star facility with a very accommodating approach to our needs. This included the storage of the bikes and, as we were later to discover, the almost limitless demands on the late night bar service. A definite find for future duo excursions.

The ride in to Marigny from St Lo to sign on during Saturday afternoon was challenging – taking several wrong turns leading to dead ends the ‘peleton’ of seven finally arrived having appeared to have ridden on a short section motorway. The trauma of this and the long journey from Ludlow had an effect on Pete Ding’s bike which decided to object by throwing a ‘wheel wobble’. A bit of rain, and getting marginally lost (again) on the return to the hotel rounded off the otherwise uneventful afternoon.

A very pleasant evening meal at one of the excellent St Lo restaurants was distracted by what appeared to be forecasts of heavy rain and gusting winds of up to 70 kph given on the restaurant’s television set. In an attempt to put fears of the following day’s ride in such adverse conditions to one side, once back at the hotel recourse was made to the settling effects of alcoholic beverage. A minor tragedy of the beer on tap running out was overcome with the provision of a bottled Mexican tequila laced beer, the name of which along with the taste is, probably wisely, forgettable.

With Stephen and Howard due off first in the morning at 8.55am breakfast was taken early as all riders and supporters travelled to Marigny to see them start. Next due to ride were Geoff and John (9.30am) with Chris and Pete timetabled to start at 9.58, closely followed by Neal Deller and Dover Disney five minutes later at 10.03 am. Phil and Rob, riding in the Regional category were not due to start until 15.08 pm. The weather had settled to overcast with a threat of rain but, although not looking to gust to anything like 70kph, it was still very windy., With the wind full behind and the adrenalin pumping from start, the first 10k would be ridden at very high speed, the second 10k in a cross wind would give some worries for those on disc wheels, but the next 15k directly into the wind would really test riders resolve – then the hills!

Steve was unlucky during his ride to encounter some technical problems which cost him about 5 minutes to rectify. This time loss was unfortunately compounded when Howard took a spill a bit later at a notorious sharp left bend at the bottom of a hill which was to take several other riders out during the day. Under the circumstances they did well to finish in 1:43:26.

The other unlucky pair of the day were John and Geoff. John punctured and a slow change put them back from the time that they had hoped, finally finishing in 1:52:19. This is the second year that Geoff has been unlucky with punctures on this event – last year it was his partner’s wheel, 30 seconds before he was due to start!

Neal and Dover, with the experience of several rides together as a two up team over the last few years, looked to upset the form book at the 20k point as they were one second up on the earlier starting team of Pete and Chris. The latter pair’s race plan however of Chris mainly leading on the flat and Pete taking the lead on the hills seemed to work as they finished in overall seventh place in a time of 1:29:03 against the 18th placing of Neal and Dover in a time of 1:32:29.

By the time Phil Mason was due to ride the weather had appeared to ease slightly, at least to those who had ridden earlier. By this time however there had been a fair bit of rain during the day so the course was slippery in places. With a fast first half riding behind a powerful Rob on the flatter section Phil came into his own on the hills and, doubtless spurred on by the impressive vocal support by the now well oiled Ludlow contingent in the grandstand in Marigny, finished in an overall time of 1:22:47 in eight position.

Best ride on the day by the professionals was turned in by Sosenka and Blahut in a time of 1:10:27

Typically the following day was almost perfect cycling weather, lightly overcast in the morning turning to sunshine by mid day, with barely 10k winds. With the ferry back due to leave Le Havre at 5.30pm it did give the travellers an opportunity to do the ‘tourist thing’, enjoy the sights, further participate in some French cuisine and, of course, stock up on tobacco and alcohol!

After a mill pond channel crossing starting off in bright sunlight, a speedy disembarkation and a slight diversion on the return journey due to road works, the by now very weary travellers returned to their starting points at around 1.00am on the Tuesday morning. All agreed it had been a thoroughly enjoyable weekend and talk was already of plans for 2007.